From weekly unauthorized demonstrations in Moscow over candidate registrations to single-person solidarity pickets in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, and beyond, 2019 has been Russia’s summer of protest.

As the country heads into national local and regional elections on September 8, what do ordinary voters make of these challenges to the political status quo?

In a recent survey by the Levada Center, an independent Moscow pollster, 45 percent of 1,608 respondents said they were indifferent. Among the remaining respondents, the critics (25 percent) narrowly edged out supporters (23 percent).

But a deeper story stands behind these numbers.

As part of his Voice Of The Streets project, journalist Vadim Kondakov, host of Current Time’s Unknown Russia series, took to the streets to discuss the demonstrations with residents of three of Russia’s largest cities – Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg.